Gung Ho has done a truly admirable job introducing Puzzle & Dragons to non-mobile players. I actually went and downloaded the original after playing these two games just to get an even broader understanding of the series, and I can honestly say that Puzzle & Dragons Z + Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition perfectly replicate and evolve the core concept into something bigger and better.

Shapes of Gray is ultimately disappointing. With so many fantastic ideas at play, both mechanically and aesthetically, it is heartbreaking to see the whole thing get tarnished by mere technical errors.

Though I can’t freely tell everyone to go out and buy A-Train, I think that any player looking for a steep challenge and elaborate system of controls and menus to learn will have a blast with this game.

The pay model is fair and flexible, the gameplay feels refreshed and is highly addictive, and it’s clear that Mallow and his companions will be part of the Nintendo family for many years to come.

With its gorgeous visuals, moody story, and clever platforming gameplay, Nihilumbra is definitely trying its best to join the hallowed halls of indie greatness. However, I think it falls short, but not by much.

Excave is a functional dungeon crawler, which should be fun, if you’re willing to work your way around weak item management, the lack of a map, constant backtracking, and its overall short length. If you can’t deal with these problems, then even the alluring $5 price tag won’t help you forget them.

Humanity in Chains is a game that was made for Attack on Titan fans. It’s fun, visually stunning, immersive, and it’s essentially an entire anime made into a video game.

All things considered, I can kind of give High Strangeness a halfhearted recommendation; the soundtrack is outstanding and there are some clever story and gameplay concepts on display, just don’t be surprised if the second half leaves you feeling low.

I genuinely have no complaints about the Animal Crossing DLC for Mario Kart 8 and highly recommend getting this content, as well as the first pack if you haven’t yet, to expand on your Mario Kart experience.

For those willing to invest the effort and time, Etrian Mystery Dungeon is a phenomenal game that will challenge and reward you in equal measure.

As I said above, Frontier also doesn’t really offer much challenge until later in the game. A lack of difficulty isn’t always the biggest problem if the gameplay is irresistibly fun regardless, but Frontier‘s battling tends to become too formulaic with no significant strategy or planning needed to barrel through opponents.

Dot Arcade is a love letter to an era most gamers are too young to ever have experienced, and the amount of care the developers put into the mechanics, sounds, and visuals is obvious. So, if you demand a very modern experience from all your games, Dot Arcade will not be up your alley. For people who know what they are getting into and have a desire to taste a bit of the past, then this title is definitely worth checking out.

Still, Music On: Electric Guitar is a cheap and useful tool that most guitarists could probably appreciate as a way to get their music on (see what I did there) while on the go.

Quite simply, it’s easily one of the best games that you can download on Wii U and you absolutely need to play it if you love the genre.

There are better options in the eShop, but if someone is looking for something new, Iron Combat might do in a pinch.

As it stands, anyone itching for speed and twitch gameplay could do a lot worse than Proun+– just don’t expect to be blown away.

Kirby and the Rainbow Curse is a beautiful, creative, and fun-loving game that absolutely deserves your time and attention.

Thankfully, the enhanced, head tracking New 3DS easily resolves this issue and makes playing either version of Assault Horizon Legacy with the 3D turned all the way up a much more accessible and enjoyable experience.

Like Ocarina of Time 3D, Majora’s Mask 3D is a must-play. It’s ironic that a game about time travel would prove to be so irresistibly timeless.

Gunman Clive 2 is everything a fan of the original game could want: it improves on an already strong framework, without feeling like a rehash.

While it’s tons of fun to see how high you can get your dolphin to reach in space, the tricks get boring to perform due to their simplicity and a lack of gameplay variety makes it hard to hold your interest over time. The online leader boards help extend the replayability of the game, but the novelty of Dolphin Up‘s absurd premise ultimately wears thin after multiple sessions.

MH4U is a milestone achievement for Capcom’s unique series. It looks, sounds, and plays better than ever, belying the fact that it’s running on a handheld and not a home console.

It's Flappy Bird with 3D graphics and a stereotypically French art direction some, myself included, might find charming. Some might find the ultra simple gameplay addicting.

Space Lift Danger Panic! is a hard game to recommend to those looking for a unique, deep experience, but it’s a pretty decent game for those looking to kill some time in short bursts.

A salute to Atlus for bringing something unique and fun to the market so early in this new year; here’s hoping Eden Industries gets a shot to expand on the foundation it laid here with a future sequel.

Despite some technical hiccups, the game provides enough hours of original and fun gameplay. I can’t speak to how good exactly Underground is for medical training, but as a game it is a pretty neat puzzle title.

LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham is another strong title for the caped crusader. While it doesn’t quite match the heights of the best LEGO titles we’ve seen thus far, it’s still a very impressive translation of its console brethren.

I encourage everyone to give this title a download, though, as it’s an absolute blast to play, despite its shortcomings.

Captain Toad also makes an effort to tie its narrative into 3D World‘s, something that had me smiling when I finally got to see how. It’s just the best kind of fan service, and really the sort of thing that no one does as well as Nintendo, if at all.

The game may have its issues, but it’s still a great love letter to classic 16-bit JRPGs.

Ace Attorney Trilogy is a real love letter from Capcom to its fans. Packed with three huge games for a paltry $15, it’s also budget friendly, too.

Though the interface will leave many folks scratching their heads, I implore anyone who downloads SDK Paint to stick with it. The program rewards patience, and rewards others with beautiful art to behold.

This game needs to be in every Wii U owner’s collection.

Depending on your exploration and puzzle solving skills, Ittle Dew will last between three to six hours. It is not a terribly long and epic adventure, but one that has a lot of heart. If you truly love the Legend of Zelda series and adventures in general, Ittle Dew is the perfect game to remind you why that love exists in the first place.

Persona Q is a fantastic game that does so many things right.

With no village to visit, drive-thru interactions with NPCs outside of the player’s front door, and overly slow pacing in the narrative, Lost Valley feels like half of a really fun game.

I’ve Got to Run: Complete Edition! offers more modes and options than a lot of other games in the endless runner genre. Unfortunately, most players will probably find themselves over this one pretty quickly.

Acting as more of an art app than a game, Pixel Paint provides players with an ample number of classic system-themed swatch palettes to create their works, along with a respectable selection of tools to get the job done.

Cosmophony will not be everyone’s cup of tea, but those willing to brave its tunnels of torture will be greatly rewarded.

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 ultimately proves just as easy to recommend to children as its predecessor and generally provides what we expect from a good sequel.

It may not be perfect, but games like Ping 1.5+ prove that there are great eShop games out there for Wii U owners to experience.

Bayonetta 2 doesn’t do anything particularly new, but it does serve as an improvement of an already excellent action title, perfecting the formula even further.

Buying the Skylanders Trap Team Starter Set probably won’t be enough for you. Again and again, you’ll run into times when you wish you had just a little more cash to buy that colored trap, or that Skylander. But more than any Skylanders game before it, Trap Team makes you feel good about your purchases– even if it’s your kid that gets to enjoy them.

Smash Bros. has arrived, and it didn’t disappoint. I can’t stress enough that this needs to be in everyone’s 3DSes.

With a wealth of content, improved controls, and some addicting minigames to play, Cooking Mama 5 has brought the series back up to par– here’s hoping Majesco can push forward even more and really make the franchise shine if it ever graces us with a sixth installment.

The touch screen combat is intuitive, the difficulty makes every battle interesting, and the levels are expertly crafted by the developers at Cinemax Games.

Longtime series fans will probably get the most out of the abundant homages and shout outs to series’ lore, but action games enthusiasts in general will get a thrill out of Hyrule Warriors‘ fabulous gameplay. Wii U owners shouldn’t hesitate to give the game a purchase.

With great music and great gameplay, Curtain Call is a triumphant celebration of Final Fantasy. For series enthusiasts, the game is a brilliant tour through all the great Final Fantasy titles that have been released over the years.

It’s a 2D shooter-platformer that has one eye on the past and the other on the present, coalescing to form a game that firmly takes the genre another step forward into the future.

Mighty Gunvolt is a more deliberate homage to Capcom’s NES Mega Man games than its parent title, and it’s a very good one, at that.

If you like the soundtrack or are willing to look past it, you’ll have a lot of fun punching and kicking to the beat of the music in KickBeat: Special Edition.

Overall, though, Tappingo 2 is an excellent addition to the eShop that would be criminal to overlook.

It is charming and enjoyable, though, and that’s all I want from a piece of software I enjoy on a mobile device. Treat yourself and make some time. It’ll surprise you.

Soon Shine is a hard game to review. There isn’t a whole lot of depth to the title, but it is fun, in spurts. At an asking price of $1.99, it feels a bit difficult to ask for a much deeper experience, however. As it is, it’s a quick diversion that probably would have been more appealing as a portable title.

Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney may not live up to the hype we’ve given it after all these years, but it’s still a great game that celebrates both franchises well.

The Fall is still a great, unique title on the eShop, but you need to know what you’re getting into before you play it. In terms of gameplay, The Fall struggles to deliver anything special. But if you’re looking for a game with a genuinely dark sci-fi setting and an intriguing story, then you’ll definitely enjoy exploring as ARID.

There are games that are fun because they’re simple yet offer a deep experience. But, there are also games that are so simple in design that it’s hard to find any kind of enjoyment from them. Shut the Box falls in the latter category, as it’s a game that requires barely any kind of thought or skill to play.

Strike Force Foxx does a few things well. The controls are tight, the story is delightfully tongue-in-cheek, and the levels require some effort to complete. Unfortunately, the lack of variety really prevents it from going any farther.

LEGO Ninjago: Nindroids isn’t the worst LEGO game ever made, but it certainly could have used a lot of improvements to make the experience more enjoyable.

Taking all the good with the bad, Wooden Sen’SeY proves to be a good game, even if it doesn’t manage to climb to the top of what has become a highly competitive genre.

Overall, Siesta Fiesta is a breath of fresh air as a unique Breakout-styled game that fans of the genre will not want to miss.

The game makes extensive use of a mechanic reminiscent of the best 2D Zelda titles and familiar sounding riffs feature in the music from time to time. It’s pleasing, and a significant achievement then, that none of this is at the expense of Guacamelee’s own identity.

With great puzzles, a fun cast and story, and excellent puzzle building tools for aspiring designers, Pushmo World deserves a spot in your download cue.

Farming Simulator 14 is a game that deeply lacks polish.

Turtle Tale is uninspired, boring, and repetitive, but deep down it hides a very simple, yet playable action platformer.

I really enjoyed the gameplay mechanics that Armillo has to offer, but they’re held back by issues that could have been fixed with more development time. This should be one of the best platformers on Wii U, but it unfortunately remains as a flawed gem in its current state.

Altogether, there still might not be enough content and revolutionary ideas to make ZaciSa’s Last Stand an absolute must buy, but it has some fun new twists and a low enough price tag to make it worth at least a consideration.

If Cocoro Line Defender featured units with a lot of unique abilities that were available immediately, I would probably be writing a very different review. However, as it stands, every battle is determined by how closely you can fling your units together on the battlefield.

This game is a true classic, and hopefully the first of many more to come from Yacht Club Games. Bravo.

AiRace Xeno could have been something special. The core idea of the game is fantastic and it’s a blast to pilot an aircraft an incredible speeds, but it’s ultimately a fleeting experience that’s confined to its limited features.

My biggest problem with Chubbins is that I never quite found myself having fun with it. Instead, I was consistently frustrated, and longer play sessions resulted in sore thumbs.

It’s as fun as it was when it bowed in 2009, and remains a fresh, unique take on real-time strategy games.

This is the sort of game that open-minded players will love if they give it a chance.

Even though I have a lot of complaints with Bit Boy!! Arcade, I genuinely enjoy the core concept of the game. I liked speeding through each phase and setting high scores, but the plethora of flaws it has prevented me from fully loving the experience. The game could have been something fantastic, but it desperately lacks the polish it needs to be entertaining as a whole.

There aren’t a ton of endless runners on Wii U, so anyone who’s been hankering for one can do worse than Run, but not by much.

MK8 is easily a top three contender for best Wii U game. Outside of a few niggling oddities and small blemishes, the pure bliss of soaring across MK8‘s wonderful courses is as close to gaming perfection as it gets.

This is easily one of the best eShop titles currently available, which should satisfy any Wii U owner currently starved for games.

Scram Kitty and his Buddy on Rails is a truly original game that obviously required a great deal of thought, passion and creativity, something I really don’t get to say nearly enough.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is fun, but flawed. It doesn’t deliver a very unique experience, nor does it at all deliver a faithful adaptation of the film it’s supposed to be based on. But as a longtime Spider-Man fan, I still had a really good time with it.

Mario Golf: World Tour is a solid mix of great controls, crisp, colorful visuals, great replay value due to its amount of unlockable content, and is ultimately just a flat out great experience. Chalk this one up as another great 3DS title you should add to your library.

Altogether, there is a ton of content to experience in Triple Deluxe that will keep players busy well beyond the conclusion of the main game. This is a game easily worth any player’s time, be they a rookie or veteran player. Make your day deluxe and buy a copy of Kirby’s latest game.

For what it is, Hello Kitty Kruisers is not the worst game I’ve ever played, by far, it’s just not all that it could be. Overly simplistic races and a lack of depth in terms of racing and unlocking content affect what could be an actually decent racer for Wii U. If you enjoy the Sanrio universe or you have kids in your life that would enjoy a simple, easy racing experience, the small price tag at least isn’t a deterrent to picking it up.

Governor of Poker on 3DS is a decent game of single-player poker, and if it were the only portable poker option on the market, it would be a must-buy. But it isn’t, so it’s not.

Pure Chess is in a tough place. When it’s based on a game as ubiquitous as chess, it can’t avoid comparisons to the countless other iterations of the classic game out there. You can find superior, cheaper virtual chess games everywhere.

Yoshi’s New Island suffers from a few issues, mainly the lackluster soundtrack and some new features feeling flat and shallow, but at its core this is a fun title that takes the classic platforming formula from the SNES game before it and brings it to 3DS. A pleasing art style, fun enemy encounters, and solid controls make Yoshi’s New Island a good, but not great, experience that’s worth your time overall.

Despite its tedious shortcomings, Pokémon Battle Trozei is still a fantastic game that’s worth playing. This fast-paced combo frenzy is extremely addicting to pick up and play, making it an excellent addition to the existing Pokémon spin-offs.

It doesn’t quite live up to its premise, but many fans are still pitching in their two bucks for the downloadable eShop title to tell Nintendo there’s a market for independent games on Wii U. I fully support that! But I still can’t in good faith recommend a game with no sound effects or even any save function.

Tappingo’s gameplay doesn’t disappoint and offers hours of content, making it an excellent addition to the 3DS eShop library.

Its blissful platforming is the stuff that inspires people to play video games and make even better ones. I loved every minute I spent getting the Kongs back home, and truly wish that Retro rounds off a trilogy with one last DKC game.

The soccer and JRPG mechanics blend incredibly well together and make a fantastic hybrid for fans of both genres.

Romance Dawn is a misfire all around that only the absolute most completist of One Piece fans should give it a look. It’s a shame, because One Piece is normally something quite wonderful. Such a waste.

Scribblenauts Unmasked is a fun title. It takes the best elements of the series and combines them with the DC Universe in a way that feels natural and fun. Developer 5th Cell has painstakingly mined the DC Universe and delivered a game that really takes advantage of the license.

Photo Finder is a decent adventure stuffed with charm and fun.

NES Remix is defined more by the sum of its parts than its individual pieces, so have no hesitation in jumping headfirst into this excellent retro experience.

A fantastic game. I thoroughly enjoyed spelunking through the game’s massive world, and even though the story can get lackluster, it does excel when it tackles its religious themes.

Aside from the overall presentation and lack of gameplay variety, Banana Bliss: Jungle Puzzles is still a game that is definitely worth your time.

It’s just too bad that this dungeon crawler just doesn’t live up to what it looks like.

Everything about LEGO Marvel Super Heroes feels like a labor of love from TT Games.